The Singles Jukebox

The Jukebox repeats its earlier warning that “beautiful” is not a noun.

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[3.89]

Will Adams: I’d much prefer to hear the “eff society, you’re beautiful” sentiment from someone who actually seems to care about the subject rather than someone with the ulterior motives of Labrinth, the condescension of One Direction, or the cynicism of Lily Allen. But the cliché is still tough to endure. So is that gurgling synth bass.
[4]

Alfred Soto: It’s not true that the beautiful want to “stay the way” they are: the one offering the compliments can’t understand why the rest of the world falls short. “Scars to Your Beautiful” offers more phony uplift and dessicated singing than an anthem like this requires. You don’t want scars? Fine. Give me beauty.
[3]

Iain Mew: What are the chances of the top two in Sound of 2016 having songs with kind of similar chorus melodies and “oh oh oh”s? Well okay, pretty high really. And actually, this is all round much more like a less horrible version of Labrinth & Emeli Sandé’s “Beneath Your Beautiful” with English just as stretched but delivery and sentiment a bit less suffocating.
[3]

Ryo Miyauchi: Alessia shouts a message appropriate for an artist who got noticed by breaking pop’s  fourth wall to go, “hey, guess what, this world is bullshit.” It’s cathartic, almost to the point of cliche: I can just hear her break away from singing this song to go “and now you sing it!” especially during the last third. Nevertheless, it’s still fine pop catharsis, and the crowd will surely eat it up.
[5]

Olivia Rafferty: Completely unradical in the assumption that its delivering a radical message. The chorus comes in with with large elements like stompy kicks and gang vocals that just instantly categorise the whole song as an empty “Love Yourself” anthem created for Dove commercials. For a song about the subject, there’s no charming ugliness or weirdness to it.
[2]

Will Rivitz: Man, we’re really excited about this whole commodification-of-feminism thing, aren’t we? I’d compare its maddeningly platitudinous approach to self-love and empowerment to Daya’s “Sit Still, Look Pretty,” but at least that song’s energy level was passable.
[3]

Katie Gill: This one hits all the self-affirmation beats: you’re beautiful! Have hope! Words won’t get you down! And hey, if this inspires you, then I am not knocking that in the slightest. People get inspiration from many places. But I can’t get past how Cara’s got a vocal range of about an octave and the backing doesn’t do anything new, opting instead to play the same five measures over and over again.
[5]

Thomas Inskeep: The line “no scars to your beautiful, we’re stars and we’re beautiful” is, well, beautiful. I’m immensely glad that there’s a teenager — and a believable one at that — singing lyrics like these to other teenagers (and for that matter, anyone who needs to hear them). Body image is a killer, literally, and the more songs that work to combat that, the better, as far as I’m concerned. I like Alessia Cara the same way I like Lorde, in that they both seem like real women sharing their experiences for other young women. Additionally, Pop & Oak provide snappy production, and Cara’s vocal comes across as heartfelt. And it kinda gets me right here (points at heart).
[7]

Edward Okulicz: If this makes someone feel a bit better about themselves, then fine, maybe the job is done. But on the other hand, fuck a world that makes people feel shit in the first place and then sells them a song as a salve. Cara is not crass enough to turn your self-esteem anthem into hers, but there’s only so far a well-judged reading can take a limp text.
[3]